Clean drinking water is a necessity for life. Access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services is critical to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Katherine Franz of the Axia Institute and Joan Rose, pictured at the IWA conference, courtesy of HRWM-Vienna/Zsolt Marton.

Michigan State University researcher Joan Rose recently received recognition from the International Water Association for completing research commissioned by the Axia Institute related to the Global Water Pathogen Project. The GWPP was undertaken by the International Hydrological Programme of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and MSU.

The research project, titled “Building a Knowledge Value Chain to Support Global Water Safety,” seeks to develop a knowledge supply chain for safe water using advanced information technology. Project accomplishments were recognized on Sept. 19 during a special event of the 20th IWA’s Health-Related Water Microbiology Conference in Vienna, Austria, where Rose and her fellow researchers were congratulated for their efforts in this important area.

Specifically, this research project commissioned by the Axia Institute aims to develop a knowledge resource to reduce mortality linked to water pathogens and the lack of safe drinking water and basic sanitation. It will accomplish this by creating a state-of-the-art knowledge hub on water-related disease risks and intervention measures, including new and emerging pathogens and updated scientific data. The hub will replace the current benchmark reference work, Sanitation and Disease: Health Aspects of Excreta and Wastewater Management by Richard G. Feachem, David J. Bradley, Hemda Garelick and D. Duncan Mara.

Project goals include the following:

  • Providing an updated review of the efficacy of sanitation technologies
  • Updating Sanitation and Disease, the key global resource for sanitation and safe drinking water
  • Interfacing with UNESCO’s goal for production and dissemination of new edition of Sanitation and Disease

At the IWA conference, Rose also launched this new edition of the classic textbook on wastewater microbiology and treatment. The new edition contains information from more than 276 contributors, including approximately 160 authors and editors.